The Tideflats King Claimed the Surveyor Who Trusts No One, and My Signature Was His Brother's Alibi novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: St. Nicholas Day

Lena's POV

The hall was full by six.

I counted it from the head table, from the chair at Niko's right hand, with the plaster wall of the stage at my back and the long room spread out before me.

Two hundred and twelve people.

The tables ran in rows under strings of white lights, with paper cloths and clay pitchers and candles in glass.

The air smelled of lamb and cabbage and wet wool.

The Tideflats families were all there, in their best, in their dark coats.

The tug captains and the cold-storage foremen.

The crab-pot makers from Gig Harbor.

The widows.

I had never seen so many people who had lost a boat.

I had never thought to count them.

At table nine two men and a woman in plain winter coats sat with plates of sarma in front of them.

They had the careful stillness of people who were not hungry.

One of them looked at me, and then away.

The state fire marshal's office.

Katarina sat at my left hand, small and upright in her black dress with a white lace collar.

She was pouring wine with her own hand, and her hand did not shake.

She did not look at me.

She said, in Croatian, something short, and Niko answered, and her mouth moved.

"What did she say?"

"That you are the color of the candle," Niko said.

"And that you are to eat."

I ate two bites of the lamb.

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